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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Kuih Makmur @ Momo

My Hubby came home one day with a half-empty cookie container and raved about what contained inside. Handing over the cotainer to me, he said, "You gotta try these peanut cookies, they're mmmm ... so melt-in-the-mouth, they're really good..... sorry, these are what left".
I took a closer look . Peanut cookies NOT! They're KUIH MAKMUR!

Kuih Makmur also known as Kuih Momo over here in East Malaysia, actually don't contain peanuts. The flour is pre-roasted to impart a nutty aroma & flavour and one can mistaken as ground peanuts. These delightful icing sugar coated round buttery balls crumble and dissolve into a fragrant nutty paste once popped into the mouth. I've never actually come across anyone who doesn't like these morsels which are usually found during the festive season.

East Malaysian Kuih Makmur/Momo are by no means the same as the ones in West Malaysia. Those in West Malaysia are usually shaped like leaves, not round and has ground peanuts as filling and is coated with caster sugar on the outside.

Here's a keeper recipe for Kuih Makmur/Momo taken from "Sunflower Food Galore".

Kuih Makmur/Momo

Ingredients:

250g plain flour or all purpose flour

40g icing sugar

75g full cream milk powder

150g ghee (I used QBB brand)

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

about 1/2 cup sifted icing sugar for coating

Method:

1) In a frying pan, dry fry plain flour at medium low heat for about 5 - 6 minutes. Keep stirring the flour to avoid burning till flour becomes very hot, smells lightly nutty and has turned a very light brown tinge. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
2) Using pestle and mortar, grind salt with 1 teaspoon of the dry roasted flour to a fine powder. Add this to flour.
3) Mix all the dry ingredients together, then sieve. Remove remaining gritty grains.
4) Melt ghee in microwave for about 20 - 30 sec. Beat in the egg yolk.
5) Pour ghee and yolk mixture into the dry mixture. Mix with a folk or spoon then finish by rubbing with fingers till dough is evenly mixed. The dough is crumbly but should form a lump when squeezed together.
6) Take a pinch of dough, squeeze to form a lump then lightly roll between palms into a ball about 2cm wide. Do this without exerting pressure or it will crumble.
7) Place balls on baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving some space in between balls.
8) Bake in a preheated oven at 150 deg Centigrade for about 12 - 15 minutes till light golden. Momo balls will expand slightly after baking.
9) When the Momo balls are cool enough to the touch, coat generously with icing sugar. Do this gently as they are very fragile. Leave to cool completely.